December 2008 Satellite NewsVisit www.satnews.com for today's news
December 30, 2008 M2M Connects 2 Market Those involved in the area of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications realize they have specialized requirements.
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Thuraya Locates x 2 Thuraya's results proved so successful with their ThurayaLocateTM service launched in August this year that there are now two more location services — ThurayaAssistTM and ThurayaRelayTM — deployed on the GPS feature built in Thuraya handsets.
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Intelsat-704 Sat Replacement Contract Finalized By SS/L Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) has finalized a previously announced satellite contract award to provide a new spacecraft to Intelsat.
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December 29, 2008 The New Year — All Our Best To The Best... The new 2009 looms ahead... does the coming year fill you with trepidation, or encouragement?
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IAI + Elbit Produce IMINTs For Turkey Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) and Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT) have announced that their respective subsidiaries, ELTA Systems Ltd. (ELTA) and Elbit Systems Electro-Optics Elop Ltd. (Elbit Systems Electro-Optics) have been awarded a $141 million contract ($54 million awarded to ELTA and $87 million awarded to Elbit Systems Electro-Optics) to supply the Turkish Air Force with combined airborne IMINT (Imagery Intelligence) systems.
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This Bus Is Definitely On Schedule — SBIRS Subsystems Next Stop The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]-led team developing the U.S. Air Force's Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) has achieved major milestones on the second geosynchronous orbit (GEO-2) spacecraft with the completion and delivery of the remaining major spacecraft bus subsystems.
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UAVs To Take To The Air To Defeat IED Attacks The Pentagon is testing prototypes of a helicopter UAV that can automatically look for enemy bomb-layers or follow their vehicles on the ground.
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December 23, 2008 Ravens Receive OK For Flights In Italy Italy has certified the U.S. Raven UAV (RQ-11B) for use by military and civilian operators in Italian air space.
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There's Real Depth and SatCom With Deep Siren The U.S. Navy has developed a system for nuclear subs to communicate with the rest of the world that formerly required the boat to navigate close to the surface in order to raise a radio antenna. The new system is called Deep Siren.
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More Tests Set For Brazilian—Chinese EO Sats Brazil's National Institute of Space Investigations (INPE) has initiated additional tests on two satellites that are expected to be launched in five years as part of a joint program with China.
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Euroconsult Examines Global Expenditures For Space Programs In Detailed Report Euroconsult has announced that world government space program expenditures are at a historical high of more than $62 billion dollars in 2008, with planned satellite launches in the next ten years to increase 38 percent over the previous decade.
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Terrorist Trend Results In Indian Subsurface Alarm With UAV/SatCom Dependancy Underwater terrorism is the new worry for the Indian Navy even as it struggles to wriggle out of the Mumbai embarrassment.
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DMCii Competition Now Underway For EO Data Delivery For Projects Satellite imaging provider DMC International Imaging (DMCii) will provide free DMC constellation satellite imagery for scientists to support global environmental monitoring projects.
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Halt! Who GOES-R? All ready to go and then — no go. Lockheed Martin was told by NASA to stop work on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) satellite, due to a protest filed by Boeing with the U.S. Government Accountability Office over the December 2, $1.09 billion satellite award.
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Billions Of Bucks For SpaceX + Orbital From NASA For ISS Services To Be Rendered The SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft for the International Space Station (ISS) Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) has been selected by NASA with this important contract award, which is for a guaranteed minimum of 20,000 kg to be carried to the International Space Station.
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W2A On The Way For Eutelsat Via ILS + Thales International Launch Services (ILS) and Eutelsat Communications S.A. have set a first quarter 2009 launch date for the W2A satellite, which will be the 50th commercial Proton launch for ILS as well as its first mission of the new year.
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Nilesat Visits Contract Upon Arianespace For Launch On the occasion of the visit of the French Prime Minister in Egypt, it was announced Arianespace has been selected to launch the Nilesat 201
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Moving On Up... At Integral Systems... Integral Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISYS) has appointed two executive appointments to key business development positions within the company. James Frelk has been appointed Senior Vice President of Business Development. Joan Grewe has been appointed Vice President of Advanced Programs. These appointments are effective January 5, 2009.
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ATK To Power Up Orbital's Launch Vehicles Alliant Techsystems has received a $49 million contract from Orbital Sciences Corporation to provide at least nine flight sets of Orion solid rocket motors.
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A Honeywell Of A Contract For T-Hawk UAV/MAV Honeywell has received a US$65 million production contract for its Micro Air Vehicle, known as the T-Hawk.
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A Most Suitable Contract From Oceaneering To Honeywell Honeywell will provide the avionics subsystem for the new Constellation Space Suit System that will be developed by Oceaneering International Inc.
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Skylark UAV Elevates To Top Spot For Israeli Army After four years of evaluation and further development, the Israeli Army has adopted the Elbit Systems manufactured Skylark 1 LE UAV as standard equipment for its combat battalions.
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December 22, 2008 GVF Focus On Maritime Satellite Broadband Communications, Need Now More Than Ever Recent headline news of the latest of a growing number of acts of high-seas piracy — the latest incident off the Horn of Africa — has brought a renewed emphasis on the vital and increasing importance of the freedom and security of the oceans.
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B4U Buys Onto AsiaSat-3S Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) has announced B4U Broadband (India) Private Limited (B4U) has signed a contract to deliver two Hindi television channels, B4U Movies and B4U Music, through AsiaSat’s C-band full transponder MCPC (Multiple Channels per Carrier) platform on AsiaSat-3S.
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December 20, 2008 Tanks for the Ride, Falcon 9 Arrives Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) kept their promise and fulfilled their commitment to deliver first stage flight tank at SpaceX’s newest launch site, Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), in Cape Canaveral, Florida by year-end in preparation for their 2009 Maiden Flight.
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Distribution of ASTRA2Connect Service Expanded Newtec has announced the ASTRA2Connect network of distribution partners of SES ASTRA is further being expanded with new ISPs in the U.K. and Spain, and also has concluded an important deal with the Dutch Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture.
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Brit Soldiers Using BGAN For Holiday Home Hugs BGAN is helping the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan keep in touch with loved ones back home this Christmas.
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Science Fiction The Precursor For Science Fact — Free ESA Downloadable Video Whether it's Star Trek's USS Enterprise, or the iconic space station from 2001: A Space Odyssey, science fiction has always provided inspiration and ideas for the scientists and engineers who design and build real spacecraft.
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Sensing An Expanded Partnership — Lockheed Martin + Thales Alenia Space Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space of Italy are forming a strategic partnership to jointly develop and deliver a new family of space-based remote sensing systems for customers around the world.
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Moving On Up... Integral Systems... Integral Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISYS) has promoted John Monahan to President of RT Logic, a subsidiary of Integral Systems, Inc.
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Star Cluster Reveals Space Resident Christmas Tree The festive season has arrived for astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), of which the U.K.'s Science and Technology Facilities Council is a partner, in the form of a dramatic new image.
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Buono Fortuna Boeing With COSMO-SkyMed Project The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA], through the Company's commercial launch business, has received a contract to launch the fourth satellite for the COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) program for Thales Alenia Space Italia, prime contractor of the Italian Space Agency.
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Acquisition Accomplishment — Dassault Aviation + Thales The French government and Dassault Aviation have signed an agreement paving the way for Dassault Aviation to acquire Alcatel-Lucent’s stake in Thales, joining the French government as core shareholder in Thales.
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SatNews Publishers Sends Greetings and Happy Holidays To All We wish all of our readers and subscribers the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of holidays, as well as a most propitious New Year.
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Ariane 5 Successfully Launches Twins For Eutelsat An Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport at Kourou, in French Guiana, on its mission to place two multi-role telecommunications satellites for Eutelsat into geostationary transfer orbits.
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Arianespace Must BSATisfied With New Sat Contract Arianespace has received a Services & Solutions contract with Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems for the launch of Japanese satellite BSAT-3c/JCSAT-110R.
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December 19, 2008 Telespazio, Thales, Turkey — Trio Tied Together Telespazio, a Finmeccanica/Thales company, has won a tender as prime contractor, supported by Thales Alenia Space (a Thales/Finmeccanica company), from the Turkish Ministry of Defence for the Gokturk satellite system.
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10, 9, 8, 7, 6 . . . The Countdown for the Sixth Ariane 5 Workhorse The ELA-3 launch zone at Europe’s Spaceport welcomed its 42nd Ariane 5 today as the heavy-lift vehicle with Eutelsat’s HOT BIRD™ 9 and W2M satellites rolled out for a liftoff tomorrow evening on the final Arianespace mission of 2008. This was after the launch readiness review, which was held at the Spaceport in French Guiana, South America.
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December 18, 2008 Rocket Engine Testing To Occur At ISS NASA and Ad Astra Rocket Company have entered into a Space Act Agreement that could lead to conducting a space flight test of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine on the International Space Station (ISS).
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Mooning Over 3D Photos Is NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper Different wavelengths of light provide new information about the Orientale Basin region of the moon in a new composite image taken by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a guest instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
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Heron Hunters To Aid Canadian Forces In Afghanistan Canada is set to ramp up surveillance of insurgent activity and boost safety for its troops in Afghanistan with the arrival this week of the first in a fleet of new long-range aerial drones.
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Spacecraft Command Language Announced by NASA News came to SRA International, Inc. [NYSE: SRX] announcing that NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has chosen SRA's Spacecraft Command Language (SCL) to support the Constellation Program, which will develop the new systems and vehicles that will replace the Space Shuttle and provide for the nation's next generation of space exploration.
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Acquisition Accomplishment — EADS Astrium + SSTL Believed to be one of the largest monetary rewards in history for any British University was the April announcement of EADS Astrium deciding to purchase Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL).
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Moving On Up . . .Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) An announcement from Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) reveals the appointment of Gwynne Shotwell as President, effective immediately. Shotwell will be part of the Office of the Chairman and CEO and report to Elon Musk, CEO and CTO.
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Acquisition Accomplishment — Boeing + Digital Receiver Technology The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has completed its acquisition of Digital Receiver Technology Inc. (DRT), a Germantown, Md.-based company that develops wireless surveillance products for government customers.
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ISS Crew Toast 40th Anniversary of Moon Crew Coming to your TV via the International Space Station crew, will be a 40th anniversary commemoration of the moon crew with a special message. This event also serves to pave the way for NASA's return to the moon.
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Boeing Relishes Rotor Reveal For Hummingbirds Boeing's A160 Turbine (A160T) Hummingbird unmanned rotorcraft has achieved two key milestones: using its two-speed transmission to change gears in flight, and passing the 100-flight-hour threshold.
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ARINC's C4I 4 SSC 2 Continue ARINC Engineering Services, LLC, has won an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity award under the U.S. Navy’s new 5-year contract to provide for integration and implementation of Command and Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) and radio frequency communications systems.
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Moving On Up... Ofcom... The U.K. Government' current Office of Communications board member Colette Bowe has been selected as Ofcom Chairman-elect.
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NASA's Kepler Kraft Kontainerized For Trip To The Cape Engineers are preparing to pack NASA's Kepler spacecraft into a container and ship it off to its launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
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December 17, 2008 Alan Shepard Technology In Education Awards Need Your Insights... The Space Foundation and the Astronauts Memorial Foundation (AMF) are accepting applications for the 2009 Alan Shepard Technology in Education Award until Jan. 16, 2009.
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Can Satellites Swim? Oui! New Oceanography Mission Not exactly, but oceanography data now available will help scientists around the world better understand climate change, and the info comes courtesy of the Ocean Surface Topography Mission.
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Broadcom's First Foray Into India With SatSTBs Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM) has announced that Bharti Airtel, India’s leading integrated telecom services provider, has selected Broadcom’s highly integrated satellite set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions to power its direct-to-home (DTH) TV services, Airtel digital TV.
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Dark Energy In Space Is Quite Repulsive—A Cosmological Constant For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of "dark energy" on the most massive collapsed objects in the universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
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Poland Obtains Full Participation In EUMETSAT Mr. Stanis³aw Gaw³owski, Secretary of State of the Ministry of the Environment, and Prof. Mieczys³aw Ostojski, Director-General of Poland’s Institute of Meteorology and Water Management, met a EUMETSAT delegation led by the organization’s Director-General, Dr. Lars Prahm.
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BAE Australia's SatCom Terminals Continue Their Naval Service The Australian Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) has signed a contract with BAE Systems Australia Ltd. for the joint supply of five maritime satellite communications terminals.
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SAIC's Constellation Support Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAI) has been awarded a contract by NASA to provide engineering and technical services to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Ground Operations Project Office in support of NASA's Constellation Program.
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Navevo's SatNav Is There To Assist U.K. Commercial Drivers Navevo has unveiled their new ProNav PNN-200 sat-nav solution for drivers of heavy goods vehicles and vans.
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Punjabi Finally Spoken on TV in U.S. via SES AMERICOM Well over 110 million people worldwide speak Punjabi, and now the first Punjabi network in America launches with SES AMERICOM a 24-hour news/entertainment channel devoted to millions of Punjabi-speaking people living in the U.S.
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BET's African Multiplatform Connection BET Networks is going offer top shows such as 106 & Park, College Hill, Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is to African-audiences as part of a multiplatform offering with sub-Saharan Africa-targeted satellite services GTV and Multichoice Africa Limited.
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Spitzer Reveals The Nasty Side Of Space This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the nasty effects of living near a group of massive stars: radiation and winds from the massive stars (white spot in center) are blasting planet-making material away from stars like our sun.
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R-BGAN Is A Turn-Off Inmarsat's R-BGAN service closed down to users in South America on Monday, December 15th, and will switch off in the rest of the world at 23:59 UTC on December 31st.
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SatDelivery of 1080p Tested By XStreamHD XStreamHD has successfully tested their revolutionary transport system. The unique transport system, tested on the AMC-16 satellite at 85 degrees west longitude, enables XStreamHD to deliver full HD movies, music, and games directly to subscriber homes throughout North America.
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University of Colorado Study Reveals Earth's Breathing, No Breath Mints Needed Interesting discovery via a study at the University of Colorado at Boulder which reveals the periodic "breathing" of Earth's upper atmosphere that has long puzzled scientists is due in part to cyclic solar wind disturbances. This finding should assist engineers in tracking satellites more accurately and improve forecasts for electronic communication disruptions.
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UAVs Will Enter In-Theater Ops To ID IED Interlopers The Pentagon is testing prototypes of a helicopter UAV that can automatically look for enemy bomb-layers or follow their vehicles on the ground.
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In Today's digiGO! — The PRO Mobile Digital World Here are the lead news items for today in digiGO!
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Unmanned Combat Aircraft Unveiled By Northrop Grumman For U.S. Navy Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has just unveiled the first of the U.S. Navy's new unmanned combat aircraft at a ceremony in Palmdale, California, attended by Navy officials, state, and local government representatives, suppliers, and Northrop Grumman employees.
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XCOR's Lynx Engine Fired Up XCOR Aerospace, Inc. has successfully completed its first test fire of the rocket engine that will be used to power its Lynx suborbital launch vehicle to the edge of space.
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Moving On Up... At Telenor Connexion AB... Telenor has appointed Per Simonsen CEO of the newly established company, Telenor Connexion AB.
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Take A Next Giant Leap Next Giant Leap, a small company that was the fourth team to register for the Google Lunar X-Prize, publically announced its name and team members at a press conference held today at the NASA Ames Research Center.
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EUMETSAT Welcomes Latvia As Newest Member State Latvia has signed the accession agreement to become a full Member State of EUMETSAT.
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Launch License Now In Hand For NMSA In an important advancement for personal and commercial spaceflight, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has received a license for vertical and horizontal launch from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation.
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Lockheed Martin Signed On With U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Nice contract for Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT], which has been selected to develop capabilities in support of the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center's Space Situation Awareness mission. The contract is valued at $20 million over two years.
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December 16, 2008 Tectonic Telltales On Enceladus Imaged By Cassini The closer scientists look at Saturn's small moon Enceladus, the more they find evidence of an active world.
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Taurus II Testing Tagged For Stennis Space Center NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center will provide propulsion system acceptance testing for the Taurus II space launch vehicle, which Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, is developing.
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Thrane & Thrane Announce One Speedy Sailor Just ask and Thrane & Thrane A/S delivers — this time VT iDirect, Inc. (iDirect), a company of VT Systems Inc (VT Systems), announced that Thrane & Thrane A/S has implemented the iDirect satellite communications platform that will support their customers' growing need for high-speed connectivity at sea.
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A Tata Sky High — Another Milestone Achievement NDS is a partner of the leading DTH provider in India, Tata Sky, and the latter achieved a major milestone, as they have now reached 3 million subscribers within a period of only 27 months.
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IDF Makes Their UAV Selection The Israel Defense Forces has selected an enhanced version of Elbit System's Skylark mini-UAV for operation at the battalion level.
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SatTracking Logistic Assets Contract Awarded To ARINC + Impeva ARINC Incorporated and Impeva Labs, Inc. has announced the U.S. Army Logistics Innovation Agency (LIA) has awarded the companies a contract to install and demonstrate their satellite-based Next Generation Wireless Communications (NGWC) tracking, security, and monitoring capability on containerized shipments of Arms, Ammunition, and Explosives (AA&E).
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Lockheed Martin Sit-ting Pretty With B-Sat and Sky Perfect JSAT Lockheed Martin has the contract for the Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SKY Perfect JSAT) of Japan to build their next geostationary broadcasting and telecommunications satellite.
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A Predator Wish + Heron Height Hassle For Turkey As speculation mounted that Turkey might opt for an Israeli armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to meet its needs, the Turkish Land Forces Command made its official request to the country's procurement agency to launch a bid for a US General Atomics Aeronautical Systems made Predator UAV.
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Moving On Up . . . Inmarsat Inmarsat, a satellite communications group, named Perry Melton as chief operating officer effective January 1, 2009.
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Level 3 — A Level Above Level 3 Communications, Inc. [Nasdaq: LVLT] announced their expansion of its Vyvx services platform to include broadcast video distribution in Europe.
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Major Agencies & Companies Attend the Biggest Review in the History of NPOESS News just released reported that last month a comprehensive Mission Operations Readiness (MOR) review of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) was successfully completed. This was the largest review of the overall NPOESS configuration to date . . .
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Interesting — An RFP Re: Lunar Vehicle If you are in the business of lunar lander vehicles, there's a request for proposals (RFP) now out from NASA that may be of interest to you.
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Raven UAVs To Do More In Italy AeroVironment, Inc. (AV) (NASDAQ: AVAV) has announced the General Directorate for Aircraft Weapon Systems (MoD - Italy) has issued a Military Aircraft Type-Classification Certificate for the Raven B unmanned aircraft system, the first such certificate issued in Italy in the Micro-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle category.
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SBIRS' Strategic Certification The first Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO-1) payload and ground system, built by a Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] team, has been certified for operations by U.S. Strategic Command.
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Numerex Has A HERO Numerex Corp. (Nasdaq: NMRX) has successfully completed the rigorous testing of its SX1 satellite tracking device under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM).
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December 15, 2008 Global View: ESA's Envisat + The Alps The snow-capped, crescent-shaped Alps and Italy’s Apennines mountain chain are shown in this Envisat image. Snowfall in early winter — for meteorologists winter begins on December 1st — covered the entire mountain areas with fresh snow, while the lower lands in the south and north of the mountains remained snow-free.
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A 15-Year Milestone For Lockheed Martin's DSCS The U.S. Air Force’s Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) B10 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), has achieved 15 years of on-orbit operations, far exceeding its original 10 year design life.
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Wobbly Science Could Locate Habitable Moons Moons outside our Solar System with the potential to support life have just become much easier to detect, thanks to research by an astronomer at University College London (UCL).
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SIMply Experiencing Mars The final four Europeans who are set to take part in a simulated Mars mission were presented to the media at ESA Headquarters in Paris, France, last Thursday.
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Better Weather Forecasting Possible With UAV Involvement At MIT, planning for bad weather involves far more than remembering an umbrella. Researchers in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics are trying to improve weather forecasting using robotic aircraft and advanced flight plans that consider millions of variables.
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More UAV Capability Info Requested Of Sanswire By Global Telesat Sanswire Corp. (PINKSHEETS: SNSR) has delivered an additional UAV study following the initial payload integration study prepared for (GTC), a provider of satellite-based tracking and monitoring services and satellite-based airtime to government and commercial end users.
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Moving On Up... ITU's New RRB Chairman... Dr. Ali R. Ebadi, MEASAT’s Senior Vice President of Space Systems Development, has been elected to be the Chairman of the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) Radio Regulations Board (RRB).
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Acquisition Accomplishment... EMS Technologies + Formation, Inc... EMS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ELMG) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Formation, Inc., a provider of airborne wireless network products that enable in-flight passenger communications with terrestrial and satellite networks.
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Mars Of Today Shaped By Waters Of Yesterday Data and images from Mars Express suggest that several Light Toned Deposits, some of the least understood features on Mars, were formed when large amounts of groundwater burst on to the surface.
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Success Continues to Rocket For Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has completed more than 1,600 successful booster missions with its rocket engines. That's the highest number of launches ever achieved by a U.S. company.
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AIA Sees Strength In 2009 For Aerospace Industries The aerospace industry is showing resiliency in trying economic times, ending 2008 with modest growth and continued strength in important areas like foreign trade balance and employment, AIA announced last Wednesday.
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Greetings from Outer Space — Anyone Seen Bearded Man w/Reindeer? It's the perfect vantage point — soaring high above the Earth, the crew of the International Space Station has beamed down season's greetings that that began on NASA Television starting Friday, December 12. The public can return the extraterrestrial good will and send greetings to the crew by visiting this site.
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New UAV Facility For U.S. Army In Germany May Become Reality The Army may build an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle facility, complete with its own 1,000-foot runway and hangars, in the middle of Grafenw?hr Training Area in Germany.
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It's An Image Thing For Vietnam's Next Satellite Vietnam plans to launch its first remote sensing satellite by 2012, VNREDSAT-1, the Vietnam News Agency reported last Friday.
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Ipso Facto — NSS-10 IPsys Platform Gets Chummy With Satlynx SES NEW SKIES has announced that Satlynx, a leading provider of satellite communication services throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has agreed to a multi-year deal for the provision of 20 Mbps on the Africa IPsys?/DVB platform aboard the NSS-10 satellite at the orbital position of 322.5 degrees East.
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DataPath's DKETs Increase Support for Military DataPath, Inc., once again will do what it takes to ensure that the U.S. military has the communications equipment needed to ensure maximum contact on the battlefield.
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Giuseppe Verdi's Finest Was SatDelivered Microspace Communications Corporation (Microspace) was selected by Emerging Pictures to deliver the 2009 season opening night performance of “Don Carlo” live in HD from the world-renowned La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy.
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SES Americom Pulls Plug On IP-Prime News arrives that is perhaps surprising to some — SES Americom announced it will cease providing its IPTV wholesale programming service, IP-Prime, to North American telcos by July 31, 2009.
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China's New Remote Sensing Sat Launched China has launched a new remote sensing satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, the fifth satellite in the YaoGan series and developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, was launched by a CZ-4B Chang Zheng-4B rocket at 03:22 UTC yesterday morning.
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December 12, 2008 Don't Be Late for An Important Date and Delivery With ProNav Navevo, a provider of GPS software in the U.K. announced its new ProNav PNN-200 sat-nav solution for drivers of heavy goods vehicles and vans. The new ProNav PNN-200 provides new levels of performance and is easier to use . . .
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Grameenphone Files for Biggest IPO in the Country The Bangladeshi mobile operator Grameenphone, which is 62 percent owned by Telenor, today filed its final application for an initial public offering (IPO) of US$65 million.
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NATO's Mobile Comm Needs Focus Of SMi Conference Through a series of exceptional presentations, the Mobile Deployable Communications conference from SMi will provide attendees with a unique insight into NATO's approach towards interoperable mobile and deployable communications.
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Got UAVs, Need Land, Says India Army General In India, negotiations have started with the state government for the acquisition of land to set up an airstrip in North Bengal, which the army needs close to the Sino-Indian border.
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More Shadows, More Missiles, As U.S. Army Upgrades UAV Wing The U.S. Army plans to arm its RQ-7 Shadow UAV with Hellfire missiles and add two Shadow units by the end of 2009.
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With Connecticut Incubation Help, Firm To Enter UAV Engine Arena Governor M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut has announced six more start-up technology companies have received a financial boost through the Connecticut Small Business Incubator Program, including one firm intent of gaining ground in the UAV industry.
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SatFeed Prep For Times Square New Year's Eve Festivities As readers prepare their New Year's Eve programming, be aware the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment will once again offer free satellite feeds of the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, New York.
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Financially Speaking... COM DEV International... COM DEV International Ltd. (TSX:CDV) announced the Company's fourth quarter and year end financial results for the three- and twelve-month periods ended October 31, 2008.
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Blooms Of The Watery Kind Noted By NASA's Aqua Satellite During the Northern Hemisphere winter, monsoon winds over southern Asia and Australia stir the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, off mainland China’s southeastern coast.
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Arqiva + AAM Announce French SatCinema Delivery Success Arts Alliance Media (AAM) has successfully transmitted the 2008 Palme d’Or winning film, Entre Les Murs, in a full digital cinema package (DCP) via satellite, direct to the library server at Circuit George Raymond (CGR) Cinemas’ megaplex site in Villenave d’Ornon, Bordeaux.
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OnAir Roaming The Skies For Batelco Batelco (Bahrain) has announced the commercial launch of a new type of roaming service for in-flight communication for voice & data (GPRS and SMS) with OnAir Switzerland.
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Integrated SatCelCom Deal 'Tween TerreStar + Qualcomm TerreStar Networks Inc. has entered into an agreement with Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) to develop integrated satellite-cellular communications technologies for conventional-sized mobile devices designed for government, public safety, enterprise and consumer users.
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DataPath Resets, Repairs and Upgrades DataPath, Inc., a worldwide provider of satellite and wireless communications network, received a $3.6 million order to continue resets, repairs and upgrades to DataPath(R) Satellite Transportable Terminals (STTs) used in the U.S. Army's Joint Network Node (JNN)/Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program.
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Press Reacts to RocketShip Tours Earlier this month, Jules Klar, founder of Phoenix, AZ-based RocketShip Tours, announced that his company will immediately begin selling rides to the edge of space for $95,000 per flight. Participants will fly aboard the Lynx, a two-seat suborbital vehicle being built by California-based XCOR Aerospace.
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Reporting: Mars Primary Mission Accomplished Word has come in that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed its primary, two-year science phase. The spacecraft has found signs of a complex Martian history of climate change that produced a diversity of past watery environments.
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December 11, 2008 From Manger Via Fiber to You What a dichotomy — from the original rustic location of the nativity to incorporating the technology of the 21st century SatLink Communications Ltd. has installed fiber lines from the Nativity Church in Bethlehem to provide a live broadcast of the Midnight Mass.
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Composite Component Constructions Crafting By AASC For Taurus II Applied Aerospace Structures Corporation (AASC) has been awarded a contract by Orbital Sciences Corporation to manufacture the composite structures for the Taurus II Launch Vehicle.
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Space Tested Technologies Tuned To Terrestrial Benefit The Space Foundation welcomed insightArthroVR, Moviloc?, and SAGRAN, three of GMV's many space-based products, as Certified Space Technologies.
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Transocean Rocks and Drills Bigger and Better With CapRock A major step is taking place as CapRock Communications, a global provider of satellite communications to remote locations, begins transitioning Transocean’s offshore rig fleet into its global satellite network. This will mark the official beginning of the world’s largest global deployment of such services for a single drilling contractor.
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Pac This Star for the Global War on Terrorism PacStar will announce the availability of the PacStar 4100 Initial Entry Package (IEP) on December 15, but you can learn about it here first. The PacStar 4100 IEP is a highly portable, software-managed communications package designed to provide rapid on-the-ground network support to high-profile individuals and teams of up to 20 users.
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GeoEyes Contract Modification with National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency GeoEye, Inc. provider of satellite, aerial and geospatial information, announced the final Service Level Agreement (SLA) modification to the company's existing NextView contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The value of the SLA is $12.5 million per month for a period of one year.
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Kamchatka Volcano Visual, Courtesy Of NASA's Terra At the northwestern margin of the Pacific Ocean, the tectonic plate underlying the ocean is slowly grinding beneath the leading edge of the tectonic plate bearing the Asian continent.
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The SES ASTRA <=> Eurosat Connection SES ASTRA has signed a reseller agreement with the satellite equipment distributor Eurosat for the marketing and sales of its satellite based interactive broadband service ASTRA2Connect.
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Hands Off F-16 Lands Using Lockheed Martin Computer Control Technology Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., have demonstrated an autonomous landing of the F-16 Fighting Falcon. This is the first time an F-16 has landed entirely under computer control.
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Moving On Over . . .Com Dev Com Dev International Ltd., announced that John Keating, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, has accepted a position on the board of directors, and that Terry Reidel, who is currently serving as a director, has become Vice-Chairman of the Company.
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Financially Speaking, Integral Systems, Inc... Integral Systems, Inc. has reported the Company's preliminary financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2008.
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EUMETSAT Completes 66th Council Meeting With Positive Results EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, held its 66th Council meeting in Darmstadt, Germany, from December 9th through 10th.
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This Hummingbird Will Gain The Power Of Hellfire The A160T Hummingbird UAV is going to be going through a metamorphous that will position redundant flight controls, strengthen the UAV's skin, and be able to fire mounted Hellfire missiles on the prototype craft for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCom).
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TCS Ties A Big One On With U.S. Government TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ: TSYS) has been awarded orders valued at more than $7.8 million to provide fixed satellite terminal sites and managed bandwidth services using the TCS teleport over 16 months starting in December 2008 to support U.S. government personnel.
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Another JNN/WIN-T Win For DataPath DataPath, Inc. has received a $3.6 million order to continue resets, repairs, and upgrades to DataPath Satellite Transportable Terminals (STTs) used in the U.S. Army’s Joint Network Node (JNN)/Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program.
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Crisis Management TANGO Demo Reveals SatCom Bennies EADS Astrium and their partners ran a Crisis Management demonstration on December 11th in Cahors/Lalbenque.
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December 10, 2008 GVF Gets Decisive Directors The Global VSAT Forum (GVF), the global satellite industry association, is pleased to announce the officers and members of the 2009 Board of Directors.
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IDC Continues Canadian Forces TV + FM Radio Enlightenments International Datacasting Corporation (TSX:IDC) has won a competitive tender with the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) to continue broadcasting radio and television channels to Canadian Forces serving overseas.
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Aerojet Successfully Demos Push To The Max Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, announced the Company's 150-lbf thrust high performance storable bipropellant engine demonstrated a specific impulse of 333.5 seconds at its Redmond, Wash. facility.
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Terra Sat Records Indonesian Mud Flow History On May 29, 2006, a scalding mud volcano began erupting in a densely populated area in eastern Java, Indonesia.
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You Can Ciel that It's a Breeze (and a First) For Canadian TV Today it was a successful launch out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, where an International Launch Services Proton rocket with a Breeze M upper stage deployed the Canadian Ciel 2 telecommunications spacecraft to serve North America. The Proton M/Breeze M launched the first Ciel-2 satellite for the Ciel Satellite Group, Canada's newest satellite operator from Baikonur.
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LNA Mobility Transmitter Released By Mitsubishi Electric Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has developed a full-mold package low noise GaAs high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), the MGF4921AM, highly suitable for low noise amplifiers in satellite digital radio reception systems.
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Boldly Brazilian TV Distributes Via Scopus Scopus Video Networks [NASDAQ: SCOP] announced that Brazilian broadcasting company RMT chose Scopus digital networking solutions to upgrade the video distribution networks for two regional RMT television stations, TV Centro America and TV Morena.
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Draco Is All Fired Up For Dragon Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has marked another significant advance with the performance of its smallest rocket engine, Draco.
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More Ravens To Join The U.S. Army UAV Flock U.S. Army Colonel Greg Gonzalez, who is the project manager for the UAS segment, has revealed the U.S. Army is going to purchase 50 new back-packable Raven UAVs.
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UAV-Like Target Drone Trains Royal Navy Squadrons There are 11 squadrons based at the U.K.'s Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose comprising helicopters, Hawk jets, Jetstream turboprop aircraft and, perhaps less well known, a squadron of radio-controlled target aircraft.
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GlobeCast's Grand DTT Designs For Italian Partner, RAI Way GlobeCast has been selected by RAI Way, owners of the transmissions and broadcasting network of Italian public broadcaster Rai, to provide uplink, fiber connectivity, teleport facilities, distribution, and satellite capacity to deliver Rai signals to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) transmitters throughout the country in the process of the switchover from analog to Digital TV.
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Egypt Wishes To Apply Remote Sensing Sats To Antiquities Search According to the official MENA News Agency, satellites and remote sensing technology are going to assist Egypt in the discovery and recovery of antiquities.
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South African SmallSat Sumbandilasat Shipshape March of 2009 is the scheduled month for the launch of South Africa's microsatellite, Sumbandilasat.
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HOT BIRD-9 Gets Top Berth Position The upper payload component for Arianespace's upcoming dual-satellite Ariane 5 mission is now complete at Europe's Spaceport, following the encapsulation of HOT BIRDT-9 inside the launcher's payload fairing.
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December 9, 2008 You Go, Glowlink! With Win From FAA For Satellite Carrier Monitoring System Glowlink received the go ahead that it has been awarded a competitive contract by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a satellite Carrier Monitoring System (CMS) to manage FAA satellite communications traffic in Alaska and the continental United States.
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Financially Speaking... International Datacasting Corporation... International Datacasting Corporation (TSX:IDC) has announced the Company's financial results for the third quarter ended October 31, 2008. All figures are stated in Canadian dollars.
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Acquisition Accomplishment... PCI Geomatics + TGIS Technologies Inc... PCI Geomatics has announced the Company's acquisition of TGIS Technologies Inc., a company specializing in geospatial collaboration software.
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Financially Speaking... Norsat International Inc... Norsat International Inc. (“Norsat”) (TSX: NII and OTC BB: NSATF) has announced the Company's financial results for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2008. All financial results are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.
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Spitzer Senses Shocked + Stormy Stars A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a turbulent star-forming region, where rivers of gas and stellar winds are eroding thickets of dusty material. This picture provides some of the best examples yet of the ripples of gas, or bow shocks, that can form around stars in choppy cosmic waters.
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Cassini Gets Gap Grabs Of Saturn Moons NASA's Cassini spacecraft captures Saturn's moons Pan (near center) and Daphnis (lower center) as they cruise through the Encke and Keeler gaps in Saturn's rings, respectively.
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Taking X-Rays Of The Moon The C1XS instrument, a sophisticated X-ray camera developed by the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the U.K. at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and ISRO, is in full working order and is ready to start mapping the composition of the lunar surface after its journey to the moon on board India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
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Strutting the Truss At Kennedy International Space Station's next element, the S6 truss segment with its set of large U.S. solar arrays will be attached to the starboard, or right, side of the station during space shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission.
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Pyroshocking Success For SBIRS Sat Solar Array GEO-1 Spacecraft Solar Array Deployment Pyroshock testing is used to demo the operational deployment of critical satellite components.
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NATO Extends Globecomm's GPS FTS Project Globecomm Systems Inc. [NASDAQ: GCOM], has received a contract modification from NATO valued at $7.3 million to extend communication services for on site support for the Company’s previously deployed GPS-Based Force Tracking System (FTS).
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Hubble Bubbles With Info of Carbon Dioxide on Planet NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has been busy as of late, most recently discovering carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step toward finding chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life.
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Multi-UAVs — Single Commander — Proxy Aviation Systems Technology Funded Proxy Aviation Systems received $4.4 million in federal funding to advance their unmanned aerial systems and unique cooperative flight technology.
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Convergence of a New (Intelsat) Dawn for Africa It's in the works — Intelsat, Ltd., announced a joint venture with a South African investor group led by Convergence Partners that will utilize project financing to build and launch a new satellite into the 33° East orbital location, ideally positioned to serve the African continent.
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Stratos To the Defence of the Canadians Stratos Global Corporation has been selected by the Canadian Federal Government to provide a wide range of Inmarsat mobile satellite systems over a multi-year period.
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HOT BIRD-9 Now Atop Ariane 5 SatDispenser The first satellite for Arianespace's year-ending mission of 2008 began its final integration phase on December 9th, with HOT BIRD-9 installed atop the launch vehicle's dual-payload dispenser at the Spaceport in French Guiana.
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Spot On... QuickSpot Moves To On Call Communications On Call Communications has assumed management of the QuickSPOT satellite bandwidth-on-demand service from Intelsat.
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Voluminous VSAT Venture By CapRock As CapRock Communications begins transitioning Transocean's offshore rig fleet into its global satellite network, such marks the official beginning of the world's largest global deployment of these services for a single drilling contractor.
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December 8, 2008 New Korean UAV To Be Developed By Korean Air From a Jung Sung-Ki bylined article in the online version of The Korea Times, the Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has selected Korean Air as the main developer of an indigenous, medium-altitude, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which will be scheduled to start missions after 2016.
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MSV Morphs Into SkyTerra Presence Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) has changed its name to SkyTerra. SkyTerra, presently the name of MSV’s parent company (SkyTerra Communications Inc.), has become the name for all MSV-named entities operating in the United States and Canada.
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Eutelsat's W2M + HOT BIRD-9 Getting All Gussied Up For Arianespace Launch Arianespace has now set the date for the next Ariane 5 launch — Saturday, December 20, 2008.
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December 7, 2008 Intelsat Applauds Gateway's African Connections Gateway Communications has been awarded the Excellence in Innovative Cellular Backhaul Services by Intelsat at Intelsat’s 4th Annual Excellence Awards for the Africa Region.
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Arrowhead's NexGen SatCom Embraces X-band Solution With XTAR Arrowhead Global Solutions, the government services division of CapRock Communications, is launching the industry’s first managed network services based on commercial X-band satellites.
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Signed, Cieled, + Delivered For ILS Orbit Injection Ciel is a Canadian owned and controlled organization that is supported by a strong combination of partners, including: BPC Telecommunications Corp, a company controlled by Borealis Infrastructure which is part of the OMERS Pension Plan's group of companies; Canadian satellite pioneer Brian Neill; and SES AMERICOM, an SES S.A. Company (Luxembourg and Paris Stock Exchanges: SESG).
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Elbit Systems' Sub's Surveillance Success Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT) announced their 70 percent-owned subsidiary, Elisra Electronic Systems Ltd. (Elisra), was awarded a $60 million contract to supply an Airborne Surveillance System to a European country.
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Ariane 5 Now Set For Dual Payload Liftoff The sixth Ariane 5 mission of 2008 has been set for December 20, 2008, carrying a dual satellite payload for the European telecommunications operator Eutelsat.
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Inmarsat Transition To Single Dialing Code To Occur At End Of Year Inmarsat is on track to switch to the single dialling code <u> 870</u> for all its services by the end of 2008.
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RISky Business For The ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch a Radar Imaging Satellite (RIS) into orbit by the end of 2009.
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Refugees Fleeing to Uganda Desperately Call Via TSF As long as there is conflict, devastation, emergencies and more Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) makes an effort to assist the victims with communications. This last week TSF began humanitarian calling operations in Matanda, a transit camp situated 30 kms from the Congolese border where an estimated 10,000 people are sheltered.
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Introductions — NASA's Welcome Home, Now Let's Go! One group of NASA astronauts has just safely returned from the International Space Station, and now we're learning of the next NASA crews for space shuttle missions STS-130 and STS-131. The STS-130 mission will deliver a third . . .
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Maritime SatCom Melded Into New GVF Conference GVF is presenting the Broadband Maritime Conference — New Communications Networking Offshore & the High Seas — February 18th and 19th, 2009, at the Marina Mandarin, Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square in Singapore.
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Predator Planned Patrols Now Possible According to the GrandForksHerald.com online news site, bylined by Ryan Bakken, the Grand Forks Air Force Base planned-for Predator UAV finally touched down last Saturday. Base Commander Colonel John E. Mitchell said, "We have entered an exciting new period, here in Grand Forks."
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December 5, 2008 Spy Sat Time For Germany The German military has established its own spy satellite system by commissioning its first synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system in Grafschaft, a small town in western Germany, yesterday.
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Titan Scanned During Cassini Flyby Cassini swoops down to 960 kilometers (597 miles) over Titan's surface, providing the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) with its only dayside pass over the equator during the mission.
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Catch You On the Red Planet in 2011 If you're already packed, there's been a little delay. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will launch two years later than previously planned, in the fall of 2011.
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December 4, 2008 Partnership Package... Telenor Satellite Broadcasting + Vizada Networks... Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) and Vizada Networks have signed a 10-year multipart agreement for the provision of antenna, hosting, and network management services from Telenor Satellite Broadcasting’s largest teleport, Nittedal, located near Oslo, Norway.
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A Summer Crack-up In The Antarctic Captured By ESA In late February 2008, a large part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrated.
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Tandem Team-Up By ESA Based on the outstanding success of the first tandem mission between ERS-2 and Envisat last year, ESA has paired the two satellites together again to help improve understanding of our planet.
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STARBASE to ISS, Come in ISS . . . Times have changed since just a decade ago, and perhaps we should have gotten a clue with the fact that the students we heard about are part of a program called the STARBASE Atlantis Naval Air Station education program in Corpus Christi, Texas. Because of this the rest just had to follow. . .
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Viewing Venus Via Varying Aspects A pale yellow dot to the human eye, Earth's twin planet comes to life in the ultraviolet and the infrared. New images taken by instruments on board ESA's Venus Express provide insight into the turbulent atmosphere of our neighboring planet.
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Russians Prepping Sats x2 For Slot Occupancy RSCC is now ready to deliver new Express-AM44 and Express-MD1 telecommunications satellites onto their orbital slots.
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Airing Out A Partnership, Vizada + Eclipse Vizada and Eclipse have just signed an agreement to jointly cater to the mobile satellite communications needs of the aeronautical community. The two partners have begun providing services to the French Navy, including the activation of the SwiftBroadband service on its Dassault Falcon 50M maritime surveillance aircraft.
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Swiftbroadband'ed On Air Employed By Kuwaiti + Pakistani Airlines Airlines in Kuwait and Pakistan are the latest to announce their intention to fit OnAir's in-flight connectivity solution to enable passengers to use mobile devices during flight.
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Arianespace Action Item — To Launch ViaSat-1 Arianespace and ViaSat Inc., have announced in Washington, D.C. the Companies have signed the launch Service & Solutions contract for the ViaSat-1 satellite.
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Moving On Up... At Raytheon... Raytheon Company has appointed Lynn A. Dugle president of Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS), effective Jan. 1, 2009.
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Moving On Out . . .NASA Astronaut Is Leaving Carl Walz has made his mark on NASA, most recently serving as director for the Advanced Capabilities Division in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
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December 3, 2008 Near Earth Has Helpful Presentation Insights for a New Market is a new presentation from Near Earth LLC. After all, the world has changed... but the value of good advice has not!
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Grupo Abril Garners More Capacity With NEW SKIES Grupo Abril, one of the largest diversified media groups in Latin America, has launched MTV Brasil, its main TV channel for cable distribution in Brazil, on the SES NEW SKIES' NSS-806 satellite at the orbital location of 319.5 degrees East.
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TBC Gets Uplinkity With The Florida Channel TBC Integration, Inc. has delivered a new-generation DVB-S2 satellite broadcast system for the Florida Department of Education that increases usable capacity on the state of Florida’s satellite network by as much as 20 percent.
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SPAWAR Spells Success For Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] is one of two companies awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific) to provide installation and engineering support to the SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific field activity in Hawaii.
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NOAA Floats Plans for Conference Coming to Miami, Florida, December 8-12 to meet with top NOAA officials to learn more about new equipment and software that will be needed to retrieve data from the next generation of NOAA satellites are weather and climate forecasters, emergency managers and other users of NOAA satellite information.
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Suborbital Flight Tickets Now On Sale By XCOR On Tuesday, December 2nd, XCOR Aerospace, builder of the 2-seat Lynx rocket-powered suborbital launch vehicle, introduced the Company's General Sales Agent for ticket sales and announced a price that is substantially lower than prices quoted by leading competitors.
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Studios 121 Offers Full Production Services + Sat Uplink Studios 121 has opened its doors as a cost-effective partner to established and fledgling networks needing to uplink their channels, as well as companies looking to produce and distribute intra-company programming and events via satellite or fiber.
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Pumping Product Into Airtel Is Globecomm's AxxSys Orion Globecomm Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: GCOM) has completed a state-of-the art Media Processing Center in New Delhi, India, providing program origination for Bharti Airtel’s new DTH service-digital TV.
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First for Mitsubishi — Providing Sat Outside of Japan Mitsubishi Electric Corporation will be busy building the ST-2 communications satellite for a joint venture between Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) and Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Company Limited (Chunghwa), making this a transaction that is the first of its kind for Japan.
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Russian Spy Satellite that Came In From the Cold According to the Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, a Molnia-M launch vehicle of the medium class blasted off on Tuesday from the Plesetsk cosmodrome to put into orbit a military spacecraft of the Kosmos series, Itar-Tass learned from chief of the public relations service of the Space Troops Alexei Zolotukhin.
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Financially Speaking... Iridium Satellite... Iridium Satellite LLC (Iridium) has announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. Third quarter results included reaching 309,000 subscribers, revenue of $88.2 million, Operational EBITDA of $29.0 million and net income of $16.9 million.
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Acquisition Accomplishment... PCI Geomatics + Geospace PCI Geomatics has acquired Geospace Inc., a provider of geospatial information and solutions. Geospace Inc., based in Albuquerque, NM, is the developer of FeatureObjeX™.
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Nice! NSR Believes Transponder Leasing Market Will Emerge Unscathed With many industries around the world in the doldrums due to the current economic crisis, NSR's latest multi-client market research report, the Global Assessment of Satellite Demand, 5th Edition, projects that the commercial satellite transponder leasing market should emerge relatively unscathed.
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Goal Achieved — Boeing's Team Upgrade of AWACS for NATO Stressing the word 'team' — a team led by Boeing [NYSE: BA] completed a major mission-system upgrade for the NATO Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet under the $1.32 billion Mid-Term Modernisation Programme. The system offers . . .
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Moving On Up... California Space Authority... The California Space Authority (CSA) is pleased to announce the results of its 2009 Board of Directors Election. Of the six seats that were up for election, five members will be returning and one new member will be inducted.
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Slick Stratos SatChatCard Now Improved Stratos Global Corp has introduced ChatCard Online 5.0 to improve the order-processing performance of its popular ChatCard and eChatCard maritime crew calling services.
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Space Garden Vegies Are Out Of This World The Space Foundation recognized three PLANET LLC commercial products; Space Garden, JSC-1A Lunar Regolith Simulant, and JSC-Mars-1A Martian Regolith Simulant, as Certified Education Products. The Space Certification program was created by the Space Foundation, in cooperation with NASA, to raise awareness and understanding about the significant and practical benefits of technologies originally developed for the space program which have been adapted into products and services that improve life on Earth.?
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KazSat-1 Is No More... With the phrase, "That's it. It's gone," Talgat Musabeyev, the head of Khrunichev, announced the total disappearance of the KazSat-1 satellite, which entered its orbital slot in June of 2006.
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Moving On Out . . . NASA's Loss Shana Dal, NASA Deputy Administrator, announced Wednesday her intent to resign from the agency, effective January 17, 2009, in advance of the new administration coming into office.
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Animals Are Next Iranian Rocket Passengers Animals in space... that's Iran's next planned move for their Kavoshgar-2 two stage, solid fuel rocket.
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DAICHI Sat Brings JAXA + UNESCO Together For MOU The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) concluded a Memorandum of Unity (MOU) for cooperating in monitoring World Heritage Sites using the Advanced Land Observing Satellite "DAICHI" (ALOS) to watch and protect the common legacy of all mankind.
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December 2, 2008 Dock That Iridium SatPhone Atlantic Radiotelephone's SatStation Dock Plus is now available for the new Iridium 9555 satellite phone.
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Boeing's Hummingbird Finds Its Way Into SOCOM Now being deployed by SOCOM (U.S. Special Operations Command) is the new Boeing developed UAV, the A160 Hummingbird.
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French Assign UAV Study To UVS Int'l The domestic security forces of France have a desire for <=150 kg UAVs to aid them with their missions. A five month study has just been authorized by the French government to examine the legal ramifications of such UAV use.
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NASA + Russian Space Agency Extend Relationship NASA has signed a $141 million modification to the current International Space Station contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation services planned through the spring of 2012.
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Thuraya Presence Confirmed For OSEA 2008 Thuraya is going to participate in OSEA 2008, Asia’s largest oil and gas event.
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Trash Bags Not Included with ESA's Space Situational Awareness Yesterday we reported about one of the meetings the European Space Agency (ESA) conducted in The Hague, and another matter that was addressed was that outer space is swarming with a wide array of operational spacecraft, as well as littered with human-made hazardous space debris.
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Up, Up + Away Is The Latest Chinese Sat The 113th launch of a Chinese Long March rocket saw the country's new remote sensing satellite, Yaogan IV, en route to orbit.
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Space Environment Replication Testing Environment Contract To ATK Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) has been awarded a $26.1 million contract by the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) for the design, fabrication, installation, and testing of the Space Threat Assessment Testbed (STAT) System. STAT will create a realistic space environment to perform developmental and early operational testing of space hardware for the Department of Defense, the National Reconnaissance Office and other federal agencies.
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NASA's Challenge: How Do You Pin an Award On An Armadillo? NASA will recognize Armadillo Aerospace, the winner of the 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, during a ceremony at 10 a.m. on December 5th at NASA Headquarters, in Washington.
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ORS To Get Goodrich Built Sat Goodrich Corporation (NYSE: GR) has received a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for the first operational satellite system in support of Operationally Responsive Space (ORS).
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Enhanced HD Music Net From MTV Gets ASTRA Boost Into France SES ASTRA has signed a long term contract for the broadcast of MTVNHD, MTV Networks High Definition, in France.
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Thales Radios In Their Solutions Thales Communications, Inc., announced the expansion of its tactical communications team. In response to increased battlefield requirements, the company has grown its business development organization to better serve both its domestic and international customer base.
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Silence From Phoenix Mars Lander Is Deafening After nearly a month of daily checks to determine whether Martian NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would be able to communicate again, the agency has stopped using its Mars orbiters to hail the lander and listen for its beep.
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FAA Gives ADS-B Sat Tracking Of Aircraft The Go Ahead In a step that promises to greatly improve the efficiency of air transportation for millions of Americans, FAA Acting Administrator Robert A. Sturgell has given the green light to nationwide deployment of a system that allows aircraft to be tracked by satellite rather than radar.
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Galaxy Gateway Success For O3b O3b Networks Ltd. has announced the Company will start deployment of a new high capacity backhaul infrastructure for Galaxy Wireless Communications Limited.
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EMI VIIRS Testing Tackled By Raytheon—All Is Well The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) will provide advanced imaging and radiometric capabilities onboard the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).
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Make That DragonLab x2 For SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has added two DragonLab missions to its manifest. This is a result of demand of a successful workshop held at SpaceX headquarters on November 6th to introduce the new DragonLab product.
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Lockheed Martin GOES to NOAA and NASA Lockheed Martin is ramping up for production of the next series of weather satellites after being selected as the contractor for NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of Denver will build the satellites for NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, or GOES-R, Program.
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SARR Program Signs On COM DEV For Phase 1 Build COM DEV International Ltd. (TSX:CDV) has won a contract to begin work on the satellite payload of the global search and rescue system known as Cospas-Sarsat.
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GMV + EU Funded HARMLESS Project Has Huge Potential GMV has announced the results of the HARMLESS project, which is an international FP6 (Framework Programme 202-2006) research effort aimed at studying and promoting the use of the Galileo and EGNOS satellite navigation systems for emergency management, humanitarian aid, and law enforcement support.
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December 1, 2008 Stryker Brigade Gets gMAV Training To Train Others The Army's commitment to equipping its total force with Future Combat System (FCS) capabilities continues as the first Army National Guard unit — the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the Pennsylvania National Guard — begins training next month with the FCS-developed gasoline-powered Micro Air Vehicle (gMAV) prior to the unit's deployment to Iraq in January.
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Verily, VSAT Goes Modular With Gilat Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. has announced the commercial availability of its new modular VSAT platform, SkyEdge II Access, enabling converged services such as broadband IP, voice, video and multicasting.
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Gateway Gains Gobs Of Capacity Via HELLAS SAT Gateway Communications, a provider of African telecommunications services, has signed a deal with HELLAS SAT which will provide an additional 36 Meg of capacity over Southern Africa.
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RapidEye Rollout Reveals Real Estate Of Considerable Proportions RapidEye has opened their new Image Gallery at their website. The Image Gallery will feature high resolution satellite images taken from around the world by RapidEye's constellation of five spacecraft.
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Rushing Panama Waters = Rushing Télécoms Sans Frontières Emergency aid travels across all boundaries, includes all races and religions, and results in rebuilding peoples' lives. Once again Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) is out the door . . .
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Meeting MEASAT-3a Back in the U.S. The MEASAT-3a satellite is now back in the U.S. where it will undergo repairs after being damaged during pre-launch operations in Baikonur, where it had undergone a complex de-fueling and decontamination procedure.
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Arianespace Says, "Hold That Thought!" Due to logistics difficulties in French Guiana, Arianespace has decided to postpone the next Ariane 5 launch, initially scheduled for Wednesday December 10th, because of logistics difficulties in French Guiana.
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Easy Access to this Partnership Access Partnership announced the appointment of Zeina Mokaddem as Director of a new branch office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
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Moving On Up . . .Dr. Guggenbach at RUAG Aerospace Dr. Peter Guggenbach has been appointed as the new CEO of RUAG Aerospace. The board of directors determined the 46-year-old, with a Swiss engineering degree from ETH Zurich, will assume his new position on April 1, 2009, and will also become a member of RUAG's Executive Board.
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Spain's Satconexion Broadly Welcomes Avanti Communications Broadband satellite operator, Avanti Communications Group plc [AIM: AVN], signed a contract to supply wholesale broadband services to Satconexion SL of Spain.
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Give the Canadarm Arm a Hand Here is a photo of the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS), or Canadarm (Canadarm 1). Backdropped against Earth's horizon and the blackness of space, Endeavour's Canadian-built robot arm appears amidst elements of the International Space Station.
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Lost in Space . . .OOpsie! While we all take this industry seriously, and everyone involved is certainly intelligent (some even more so than others) we stumbled across this YouTube video that is both amusing and interesting.
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Good Show — Thales Alenia Space Gets the Nod At ESA Meeting Thales Alenia Space was delighted with the decisions and budget allocations approved by the meeting of European ministers in charge of space activities in The Hague on November 25-26.
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End Of Year Report For Canadian Broadcasting Market Now Available Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Snapshots Canada TV Broadcasting 2008" report to their offering.
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The Atmosphere Of SatCom Is Not A Friendly Place Research and Markets has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new report "Satellite Communications Systems Engineering: Atmospheric Effects, Satellite Link Design and System Performance" to their offering.
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Astronauts Capture Egyptian Cities Of The Dead... An interesting astronaut photo was acquired on October 31st by the Expedition 18 crew using a Nikon D2Xs digital camera fitted with an 800 mm lens, provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.
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